One has to start with a simple belief: No one chooses to be homeless. Add a dose of compassion, and perhaps even some enlightened self interest (reducing the enormous cost of welfare programs, hospital care and prison time) and one can quickly arrive at the conclusion that homelessness is a problem that needs to be solved.

Homelessness among our military veterans is particularly troubling.

Statistics on homelessness are famously inexact. Most official government figures are compiled by "point in time" surveyors who do a count one night of the year. Some of the surveyors are inexperienced and many of the homeless resist being counted. The 2015 Annual Homeless Assessment submitted to Congress by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development put the official total at 564,708, of whom 47,725 -- that particular night -- were veterans.

In New Jersey, the number of homeless veterans is the subject of debate. The New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs estimates that there are between 2,500 and 3,000 homeless veterans in the Garden State. U.S. Bureau of the Census statistics put the number at 630, although, incongruously, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says it housed 1,282 homeless veterans here in 2015. Moreover, while the general homeless population in the state declined by 14 percent between 2014 and 2015, the number of homeless veterans is on the rise, increasing by 12 percent over the same period, according to the NJ Spotlight.

What's certain is that there are far more homeless people in the state than there should be.

Other figures indict as well: While the number of homeless vets nationwide declined by about 2,000 over the last year, according to the Military Times, the National Center for Homeless Veterans puts the number of veterans at risk at any given time at 1.4 million, the result of poverty, lack of a support network and "dismal living conditions." Moreover, women vets are two to four more times at risk than their male counterparts; 74 percent suffer from PTSD, while 53 percent suffer from "military sexual trauma," according to the National Center on Family Homelessness.

Other figures point to the enormity of our homeless problem. The mentalillnesspolicy.org website says that more than 250,000 of the homeless are schizophrenic or bipolar, more than are hospitalized. A staggering 2.5 million children are homeless over the course of a year, the National Center on Family Homelessness says. And the costs of incarceration and health care and are as high as $50,000 per homeless person per year, according to figures in a U.S. Inter-Agency Council on Homelessness report.

In Utah, homelessness has been reduced by 91 percent overall and to zero among veterans, according to a state report, thanks to a policy of putting the chronically homeless in permanent homes first and asking questions about such things as sobriety or past drug use later. Once people are housed, social services follow.

Virginia has also eradicated homelessness among veterans. It focused on providing "rapid re-housing" rather than transitional shelter, and spent just $1 million to realign agency priorities, provide a portal for sharing best practices and secure financial commitments from corporate entities. It tapped VISTA and AmeriCorps volunteers to help staff its campaign.

All of the jurisdictions that have tackled homelessness successfully have first demonstrated the political will to do so. Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., Seattle-King County and Hawaii recently declared states of emergency to facilitate solutions.

Society is judged by the way its most powerful and privileged treat its most vulnerable. In the United States, one could add that it's also judged by the way it treats the brave few who have sacrificed so much to protect the rest.

At this point, most of us aren't looking too good.

Martin W.G. King, is the former senior writer at the National Crime Prevention Council in Washington DC, where he wrote about the intersection of crime prevention and homelessness.